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A love story between two people that each have a secret to hide. One a pro-wrestler, the other a Nun. Losing never felt so good. Now available for sale or rental within the United States and Canada on Vimeo.

Masaaki Yuasa's "Kick-Heart"

$201,164

3,232

Lastest News

Everyone would like to say thank you for your support! (From left to right - Aymeric Kevin, Masaaki Yuasa, Michio Mihara and Eunyong Choi)

Meet the Staff

Here is a little video that was put together to introduce you to the four main staff working on this project.

NEW Paypal Account (Updated Oct 26th)

We now have a Paypal account setup for backers who don't wish to use a credit card. If you have already made a pledge on Kickstarter, then we kindly ask that you do not switch over to Paypal since that might risk lowering our total funds raised on Kickstarter. The money collected from Paypal will be added to the total funds collected for the project, and will also be counted toward the stretch goals. If we reach a stretch goal with our combined Kickstarter and Paypal funds, then we will notify everyone that we have achieved our stretch goal.

NEW Stretch Goals (Updated Oct 26th)

175k = Spanish Subtitles, +2 minutes (Total: 12 minutes)

200k = English Dub, with help from Richard Epcar, the voice of Batou in the English dub of the Ghost in the Shell Films/Series. LA Premiere Screening and Party sponsored by Titmouse Animation Studios (date to be announced).

The Story

Kick-Heart is a love story between Romeo, a successful pro-wrestler, and Juliet, a nun who lives a secret double-life as a female pro-wrestler. Romeo's secret is that he enjoys taking a beating in the ring, while Juliet feels invigorated when facing her opponents as a wrestler. When the two meet in the ring, the fireworks fly. Their story is set in the colorful backdrop of the professional wrestling world. Will Juliet reveal her true identity to the one she loves? Will Romeo be able to share his secret to the world?

The film is directed by one of Japan's most innovative and original animation directors, Masaaki Yuasa.

Why Kickstarter?

During the mid 80’s and 90’s Japanese animation directors, such as Mamoru Oshii, pioneered a new era of animation. Their films inspired animation fans around the world, including many well known Hollywood film directors.

Recently in Japan, its been very difficult for the next generation of innovators to create more artistically driven projects-- mainly because of the economic situation in Japan. Most of the focus has been put on creating projects that carry less risk-- such as remakes of older animation projects or well-known established properties.

So we had an idea: What if we use Kickstarter as a platform to connect the fans across the globe who want to see cutting-edge animation, with highly skilled anime directors? By using crowdfunding to help support and promote these talented directors, we can enable them to push the boundaries of anime to inspire others to innovate alongside them.

This is a bit of an experiment for us, and we are trying to see if is possible to make these types of artistically driven films with the help of crowd-funding. If this goes well, we would definitely like to pursue more projects like this in the future.

About the Film

Kick-Heart will be a 2D animated short film that will be approximately 10 minutes in length and will be written and directed by Masaaki Yuasa. This film has just recently completed pre-production and layout.

During the campaign, we will be providing live updates during production and backers will get exclusive access to:

Production Artwork

Storyboards

Production blogs

Interviews with Production I.G staff

The Goal

Our goal is raise a minimum of $150,000 for this project. After the film is completed, we plan on submitting it to film festivals around the world. Anything raised above our minimum goal will go directly into the production of Kick-heart.

Color Script

Character Designs

Background Designs

The Team

Masaaki Yuasa, Director

Masaaki Yuasa has been involved in many notable projects such as Crayon Shin-chan, Hakkenden, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Samurai Champloo, leading up to his directorial debut with Mind Game. His animation is cherished by the people who are familiar with his work and his style of animation is unlike anything being made. His work plays with themes of slapstick comedy and human drama.His drawings at first glance may look unrefined, but this intentional style becomes very dynamic and expressive when they are brought to life using hand-drawn Japanese animation.

Mamoru Oshii, Project Consultant

Mamoru Oshii, is considered one of Japan’s most famous and influential directors. He has written and directed such films as Patlabor 2, Ghost in the Shell, Avalon, Innocence and The Sky Crawlers and is known as a pioneer in the Japanese animation industry. He has received and been nominated for numerous awards, including the prestigous Palme d'Or and Golden Lion. Oshii-san has graciously offered to help advise and consult on the film.

Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, CEO Production I.G

Ishikawa founded Production I.G with popular character designer Takayuki Goto in 1987. The company has since produced a number of acclaimed feature films, OVA (original video animation), TV shows, and video games. Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, and Blood: The Last Vampire, have earned critical acclaim in Japan and all around the world. Innocence, directed by Mamoru Oshii in 2004, has been the first Japanese animation feature ever to compete for the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes.

Risks and challenges

Production I.G is a reputable studio that has been making animation for over 25 years. We are very confident that we will be able to deliver this animated film within our time estimation.

We feel that there is a low risk associated with this project. Sometimes productions get delayed due to unforeseen issues, such as story or design changes. Although we don't anticipate any delays, we would be sure to keep all backers informed of such delays and provide new time estimates for completion.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 2,000 or more
About US$ 2,000

[ The Shining Wizard ] LAST MINUTE REWARD! Hang out with the Kick-heart team-- Masaaki Yuasa, Michio Mihara, Eunyoung Choi, and Aymeric Kevin to watch a live no-holds-barred DDT (http://www.ddtpro.com/) pro-wrestling match in Tokyo during the cherry blossom season! ( Transportation and accommodations not included ) ＋ Includes everything from rewards of lesser value